The present invention relates generally to display stands which may be used to support books and the like during oral presentations. More particularly, the invention relates to a display stand which may be utilized in combination with a portfolio as a single compact unit.
During any type of oral presentation, it is often necessary for the person making the presentation to refer to a book or other graphic display device for the purpose of showing various facts and figures. This situation is often encountered during sales presentations where the salesman must show various sales literature to a prospective client. The situation is also encountered by teaching professionals who are asked to give lectures in facilities not equipped with appropriate lecture stands. In this case, the lecturer requires a display device to hold his notes and other teaching materials.
A number of inventions have been patented over the years which attempt to deal with these needs. Babbitt (U.S. Pat. No. 1,086,746) discloses a rectangular briefcase which may be opened and locked into a position wherein the outer sides of the briefcase form a plane surface. Folding legs pivotally attached to the interior of the briefcase are folded out to form a support stand and display material is suspended from the upper portion of the briefcase and supported by the plane surface thereof. Plamondon (U.S. Pat. No. 1,457,458) describes a book folder for supporting reading material at various angles of inclination. The invention consists of two rectangular surfaces slightly larger than the reading material to be supported, which are hinged together along edges of equal dimension. A triangular brace pivotally mounted on one of the rectangular surfaces is used to separate the surfaces at various angles and the surface on which the brace is mounted is equipped with a lip to support a book to be read. Schell et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,202) discloses a briefcase with a false bottom that is hinged to the upper inside surface of the briefcase. When the briefcase is opened on a horizontal surface, the false bottom may be swung out at various angles of inclination with the briefcase to form a support surface for display materials. The support surface is braced by a pivotal leg mounted on the back of the support surface and attached to the briefcase in various support configurations. Mitchell (U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,154) discloses a briefcase with a table plate for writing and reading. A flat, rectangular briefcase of rigid frame construction having a rectangular recess in one of the side walls has a table plate hingedly supported in the recess, which may be folded out and supported at various angles of inclination by folding strut surfaces pivotally attached to the underside of the table plate.
Although the foregoing inventions provide display surfaces which may be utilized with box-like briefcases there remains a need for a display device which may be used with a flat portfolio-type briefcase. There also exists a need for an easily removable display device which may be detached from a portfolio and used independently where the display surface is not sufficiently large to support the entire portfolio.